Computer Systems News - Page 43

If you thought the Raspberry Pi was impressive, you ain't seen nothing yet. Intel have asked their engineers to build the absolute smallest fully-featured compute unit possible, which is something they like to call the Next Unit of Computing.

On a board measuring just 4 inches by 4 inches, you'll find an integrated Core i3 processor on a 7-series chipset, mini-PCIe slot, mSATA slot, two SO-DIMM slots and three USB ports. Power is supposed through an external AC/DC adapter, but there's also a header for an optional internal power supply. Filling out the external ports we have an ethernet port, and two HDMI outputs.

Intel's Next Unit of Computing isn't a standard form factor just yet, which means the chipmaker had to work with a chassis vendor in order to put together the reference platform. Intel are hoping to sell you a chassis, PSU and Core i3-powered motherboard for the $399 or so mark. This would also include an mSATA SSD of some description, but would be OS-less. $399 is impressive, at that size.

HP unveiled four new all-in-one PCs on Monday, starting with the SpectreOne. The SpectreOne is jut 11.5mm thin, making it HP's thinnest all-in-one PC yet. Sporting a 23.6-inch flush-glass Full HD display with a curved back, the SpectreOne looks swish.

Together with its wireless trackpad with multi-touch technology, with the ability of easily scrolling, swiping and tapping through Windows 8's tile-based OS, it is very, very Apple iMac-like. The SpectreOne is filled with an NVIDIA GPU, optional SSD and optional ExpressCache, two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports.

It also, surprisingly, sports NFC technology, where you can transfer pictures, videos and other goodies to the PC just by tapping a smartphone or NFC tag to its base. HP has also said that the SpectreOne sports "the latest Intel processors", but has left out any specifics. HP's SpectreOne desktop will be made available across the US in November, with a starting price of $1,299.

Fox News are reporting that "multiple sources" have teased that Apple will unveil new desktop iMacs next week at their September 12 event. I think we're going to see them, too.

The new iMacs would most likely sport third-generation Intel Core CPUs, as well as Retina displays. Right now there's no confirmation, but I think we're going to see more products unveiled at the event. Maybe a new iPhone, new iMac, new iPad mini, new iPod touch and iOS 6. Count those, that's 5 things. The shadowing on the last teaser posted showed the number 12, with the shadow reading '5'. Everyone thinks it's going to be the iPhone 5, but what if it's actually 5 separate, refreshed and brand spankin' new Apple devices? That would be quite the epic event, especially after what we've seen from Motorola and Amazon in the past week.

Think about it, there have been 6 iPhones, meaning that the new iPhone being called 'iPhone 5', would make it feel out of whack with Apple's numbering scheme. The new iPad dropped its number, and was just called the 'new iPad'. I really think we're going to see Apple do the same thing with the iPhone, and just call it the 'new iPhone'.

Windows 8 is nearly here, and partner to Microsoft, Samsung, have unveiled three new all-in-one PCs. They're known as Samsung's Series 5 and Series 7 PCs, and all of them are of course powered by Microsoft's nearly-here OS, Windows 8.

The Series 7 is the higher-end of the lot, sporting a 27- and 23.6-inch model coming in at $1,699 and $1,099, respectively. Both models include a 1920x1080 multi-touchscreen, meaning you can take full advantage of Windows 8 touch abilities. Just like smart devices, the new all-in-one PCs have the ability to zoom in on photos and web sites using the pinch-to-zoom gesture, as well as scrolling through pages by swiping the screen.

Samsung has also added five hand-gesture-recognition features that allow a user to perform functions without tapping the touchscreen. If you were to hold your hand in front of the screen and rotate it clockwise, it would turn the volume on a movie up, turn it counterclockwise, and the volume gets turned down. Swiping left or right would turn the pages of an e-book, with these functions working as long as you're no further than three feet from the PC.

CyberpowerPC has announced a new desktop PC called the Pro Gamer FTW. This new line of systems is "tailored for the seamless integration of gaming and live HD broadcasting." The new line features six different base models, the cheapest of which starts at a mere $1085. The systems also feature the option of NVIDIA or AMD graphics.

"They are powered by a choice of Intel's X79 Sandy Bridge-E platform, Z77 Ivy Bridge or AMD's FX Bulldozer processors; equipped with NVIDIA's overwhelming Kepler-powered GTX or AMD's astounding Tahiti series, and feature AVerMedia's innovative Live Gamer HD." This way, if you're in the Red, Green, or Blue camp, Cyberpower has you covered.

Cyberpower brags that "every system is meticulously built with precise cable routing to ensure optimal airflow and a clean aesthetic appearance" and this one should be no different. Housed in the massive Azza Genesis 9000, there's plenty of rooming for cooling and high-end components. The machines are also highly configurable:

A new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo outlines his estimates to Apple's product launch schedule for the second half of 2012, where he notes we should see an all-new iPod touch and iPod nano models, as well as a new iPhone and iPad mini models, and tweaked internals for the full-sized iPad.

Kuo's report also mentions Apple's Mac range, where he believes Apple will launch their 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro in the Sept-Oct time frame. He notes that the launch of this 13-inch Retina MBP would be a little on the quiet side, because it would launch close to the new iPhone and iPad mini models:

We think consumers who initially planned to purchase the 13" MacBook Pro and Air will turn to the 13" Retina MacBook Pro instead because it has an attractive panel, its price is similar to MacBook Pro and it has a better balance between power consumption and form factor. However, as supply is limited due to panel and assembly yield rate issues, shipment of the 13" Retina MacBook Pro won't be able to satisfy demand. And we think consumers' budgets will transfer to new iOS products after Apple launches them, which suggests that overall MacBook shipments will not grow meaningfully on the 13" Retina MacBook Pro.

Computex 2012 - Walking around the show floor at ECS we bumped into our good friends at ECS who were showing off the latest All in One PC or AIO named the G24 Aura. The new Mini-ITX based AIO PC sports support for Intel 2nd and 3rd Generation Core CPU along with Celeron Processors. We've got support for two SO-DIMM DDR3 modules, one 3.5" HDD or two 2.5" ones along with support for a Slim optical drive or another hard drive.

Moving away from the main specifications we've got a 23.6" screen that offers us a Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution with 10-finger multi-touch being an option. At the front we have a 1.3M Pixel webcam and microphone built into the screen. Across the bottom of the display we can also see two speakers.

Turning around to the back side we've got a place for a slim optical driver or another hard drive, we've got I/O connectivity on both sides along with our main buttons on the rear. Also present is a Kensington Lock along with a VESA stand support.

Computex 2012 - ASUS took the stage earlier today unveiling a bunch of new Republic of Gamer-branded devices, first up we have their new desktop gaming rig, ROG Tytan. ASUS have crammed quite a few unique abilities into Tytan, so we'll start with the specs, shall we? Tytan sports Intel's Core i7-3960X 6-core processor with three O.C. modes, but we'll get into that a little later.

Backing up the 3960X we have Intel's X79 chipset, NVIDIA's dual-Kepler GEFORCE GTX 690 GPU, 16GB of DDR3 2133MHz RAM, two 128GB SSDs in RAID0 with a 2TB 7200RPM drive for storage, ASUS' Xonar DX sound card and a Blu-ray writer. Whilst the specs are impressive, its the housing that is the real feature here. I mentioned the three O.C. modes before, which to me is one of the stand-out features of the Tytan.

Overclocking can be quite difficult, and the results vary so much between hardware that it's hard to have a baseline of what to expect. ASUS have removed this effort for the user, with three O.C. modes all at the touch of a button. On the top of the case is a 'speed' button, sans Keanu Reeves and a bus rigged with explosives. The speed button can be pressed three times for 3 pre-defined O.C. speeds. The default stage is stock, then we have 3.8GHz, followed by 4.0GHz and finishing with 4.2GHz. It may not be the break-neck, needs-liquid-nitrogen-to-push-it-speeds, but hey, out of the box overclocking without the need to reboot is impressive.

ASUS have introduced a new all-in-one PC featuring Intel's third-generation Core processors. The new ASUS ET2411 is a 23.6-inch Full HD multi-touch LED-backlit beast, sporting Windows 7, HDMI, and much more.

The touch-screen alone is something that makes the ET2411 standout. The ET2411 also comes with ASUS' SonicMaster Technology which boasts louder volumes, and improved clarity. The all-in-one PC can also be used as a secondary display on another PC by connecting other PCs, laptops or tablets through its HDMI input.

ASUS' ET2411 is also wall-mountable for those with a smaller apartment or house, or those wanting to have it look stylish. It can be specced with a Core i5 or i7, comes with 2GB of RAM (expandable to 8GB), 500GB HDD, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, DVD/Blu-ray drive, two USB 3.0 ports on the side, 3 USB 3.0 ports on the rear, HDMI-in and out, VGA, card reader, GbE connectivity, and a Kensington lock.

If you're Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, there isn't much you can't afford. It appears like Microsoft has created a device that is meant for CEOs only, at least for now: "Steve Ballmer has an 80-inch Windows 8 tablet in his office. He's got rid of his phone, he's got rid of his note paper. It's touch-enabled and it's hung on his wall."

The description above was given by Microsoft VP Frank Shaw to Wired. This isn't just a Microsoft play-thing like Microsoft Surface is as they actually plan to offer this to the public. While it's probably not going to end up in many households at launch, Microsoft believes that in 2 years it very well could. As far as calling it a tablet, well, I have to disagree. 80 inches is not a tablet.

"It's not a consumer thing now, but we know historically that that's how all things start," he said. "The idea that there should be a screen that's not a computer, we'll laugh at that in two years." The device is powered by Windows 8 and does appear to be slightly stunt-ish, but I can see the benefits of having a device like that in my office. "It's his whiteboard, his email machine," Shaw said, "and it's a device we're going to sell."